James Butler Puckett

A much-loved husband, father, grandfather and brother, James Butler Puckett, 77, of Asheville, NC, passed away on September 18, 2025 with his family present.

He was born October 20, 1947 in Charlotte, NC and raised in Davidson, NC. He graduated from North Mecklenburg High School in Huntersville, NC in 1966; received a BA from Davidson College in 1970; and received his Medical Degree from UNC School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, NC in 1974. He completed a medical internship at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, VA in 1975. From 1975-1977, he was a Captain in the US Army Medical Corps 735th medical detachment in Sandhofen, West Germany. Upon returning to the United States, he completed his residency in internal medicine and fellowship in medical oncology at Wake Forest Bowman Gray School of Medicine in 1981.

James joined the faculty at the USC School of Medicine in Columbia, SC for three years, followed by six years on a Duke faculty assignment in Concord, NC before settling in Asheville, NC in 1990. He worked as a medical oncologist in private practice for nineteen years, notably starting one of North Carolina’s first bone marrow stem cell transplant programs in 1991. He later worked at the VA Hospital in Asheville for twelve years until his retirement in 2021.

Truly dedicated to the service of others, James volunteered his spare time at the ABCCM Free Medical Clinic and participated in a medical mission to Honduras. He was a former deacon and Sunday school teacher at the First Baptist Church in Asheville, NC.

He was known to his family and friends as an avid reader with many interests. A serial hobbyist, one could never predict the project of the year, which ranged from astronomy to Egyptian hieroglyphics to diagramming the Puckett family lineage going back several generations. Through one of these projects, James became a published author of the book “Olin, Oskeegum and Gizmo: Growing Up in a Small Southern College Town 1950-1970” (BlackInk Press 2003). He and his granddaughter enjoyed constructing increasingly large, and much to his wife’s chagrin, space-occupying Lego projects.

He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Margaret Tucker Puckett; son James William Puckett and wife Joanne Wen Puckett; granddaughter Alisa Puckett; twin brother John Lawrence Puckett and wife Karin Schaller; sister Virginia Northington Puckett Grizzard and husband William Berkeley Grizzard Jr; and nieces. He was preceded in death by his parents William Olin Puckett and Virginia Lewis House Puckett.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, October 11, 2025, at eleven o’clock in the morning in the main sanctuary at First Baptist Church of Asheville. The family will receive friends after the service. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his memory to the Endowment Fund of the First Baptist Church of Asheville: FBC Asheville, 5 Oak Street, Asheville, NC 28801.

Groce Funeral Home’s Lake Julian team is assisting the family.